Innovation management
by Minh Quang
1. Sources of Innovation
1.1. Innovations don’t just appear perfectly formed – and the process is not simply a spark of imagination giving rise to changing the world
1.2. Sources of innovation can be resolved into two broad classes – knowledge push and need pull – although they almost always act in tandem. Innovation arises from the interplay between them
1.3. There are many variations on this theme – for example, “need pull” can include social needs, market needs, latent needs “squeaking wheels,” crisis needs, and so on
2. Search Strategies for Innovation
2.1. Faced with a rich environment full of potential sources of innovation, individuals and organizations need a strategic approach to searching for opportunities.
2.2. We can imagine a search space for innovation within which we look for opportunities. There are two dimensions – “incremental/do better vs. radical/do diferent innovation” and “existing frame/new frame.”
2.3. Looking for opportunities can take us into the realms of “exploit” – innovations built on moving forward from what we already know in mainly incremental fashion. Or, it can involve “explore” innovation, making risky but sometimes valuable leaps into new fields and opening up innovation space.
3. Innovation Networks
3.1. In this chapter, we have looked at the particular challenges in setting up and running networks designed to enable innovation. We have reviewed the diferent – and ofen confusing – discussion of diferent types and models of networks and focused on what can be termed “engineered” networks, established and operated specifically to enable innovation
3.2. The chapter has looked at networks at the early stages of developing an entrepreneurial idea, at networks within organizations and at the increasingly important theme of external networks, which enable and facilitate the move to more open models of innovation
3.3. We also look at the particular case of finding, forming, and getting new networks with strange partners to perform to support innovation. Finally, we look at the question of how networks are set up, operated, and sustained
4. Innovation - What it is and Why it matters
4.1. Innovation is about growth – about recognizing opportunities for doing something new and implementing those ideas to create some kind of value. It could be business growth, it could be social change. But at its heart is the creative human spirit, the urge to make change in our environment.
4.2. Innovation is also a survival imperative. If an organization doesn’t change what it offers the world and the ways in which it creates and delivers its offerings, it could well be in trouble.
4.3. Innovation contributes to competitive success in many different ways – it’s a strategic resource to getting the organization where it is trying to go, whether it is delivering shareholder value for private sector firms, or providing better public services, or enabling the start-up and growth of new enterprises.
4.4. Innovation doesn’t happen simply because we hope it will – it’s a complex process that carries risks and needs careful and systematic management. Innovation isn’t a single event, such as the light bulb going of above a cartoon character’s head.
5. Innovation as a Core Business Process
5.1. The challenge of managing innovation as a core business process concerned with renewing what the organization ofers and the ways in which it creates and delivers that offering
5.2. The process has a number of elements, and we will explore these in more detail in the rest of the book. We have also looked at the question of routines repeated and learned patterns of behavior, which become “the way we do things around here” since it is these that constitute the core of innovation management capability. Finally, we looked at some of thelessons learned around success routines – what does experienceteach us about how to organize and manage innovation
6. Building the Innovative Organization
6.1. The organization of innovation is much more than a set of processes, tools, and techniques, and the successful practice of innovation demands the interaction and integration of three diferent levels of management: individual,collective, and climate
6.2. At the personal or individual level, the key is to match the leadership styles with the task requirement and type of teams. General leadership requirements for innovative projects include expertise and experience relevant to the project, articulating a vision and inspirational communication, intellectual stimulation, and quality of LMX
6.3. At the collective or social level, there is no universal best practice, but successful teams require clear, common, and elevating goals; unified commitment; cross-functional expertise; collaborative climate; external support; and recognition and participation in decision making.
6.4. At the context or climate level, there is no “best innovation culture,” but innovation is promoted or hindered by a number of factors, including trust and openness, challenge and involvement, support and space for ideas, conflict and debate, risk-taking, and freedom
7. Developing an Innovation Strategy
7.1. Resources can be tangible, including assets, plant and equipment, and location, or intangible, such as employee skills and intellectual property. However, as these are generally freely available in the market they do not necessarily in isolation confer a sustainable competitive advantage
7.2. Capabilities are more functional than resources, and by definition are rare combinations of resource that are dificult to imitate and create value for the organization.
7.3. Dynamic capabilities allow organizations to adapt, innovate, and renew, and are therefore critical in conditions of uncertainty and for long-term growth.
7.4. Capabilities create value and contribute to competitiveness in a number of ways, including the ability to diferentiate products and processes which are dificult to imitate.
8. Creating New Products and Services
8.1. Some factors are product-specific, for example, product advantage, clear target market, and attention to predevelopment activities
8.2. Other factors are more about the organizational context and process, for example, senior management support, formal process, and use of external knowledge
8.3. Services and products are diferent in a number of ways, especially intangibility and perceived benefits, so will demand the adaptation of the standard models and prescriptions for new product development.
